World War II vet fighting VA over benefits

The agency wanted him to repay pension benefits, despite saying he was eligible for them.

Frank Klatchak, a World War II Army veteran from Northampton, was told by… (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO )

August 13, 2011|By Paul Muschick | The Watchdog

I haven't written lately about our military veterans having problems with their government benefits, but don't assume that means the Department of Veterans Affairs suddenly started providing four-star service.

What the VA did to World War II veteran Frank Klatchak of Northampton shows the agency remains the same bumbling bureaucracy that I've told you about countless times. The government tried to make Klatchak repay nearly $38,000 in pension benefits, after it said he was eligible to receive those benefits.

Klatchak, 90, lives in an assisted-living facility. His niece, Monica Kempf of North Whitehall Township, and her husband, Bob, handle his affairs.

They said the VA hasn't provided many answers about the situation. They asked U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent's office for help, and nearly all the information they've received has come from there.

"You almost feel like you're wasting your time," Bob Kempf told me.

The problem started in spring 2010. The VA routinely asks for financial information from its pension recipients, to verify their eligibility. The Kempfs mailed the requested information. The VA said it never got it, but it didn't bother telling the Kempfs until it was too late.

On Dec. 31, they got a letter saying Klatchak's pension was terminated for failure to provide the financial records. The decision was retroactive to the beginning of 2009, and the VA demanded Klatchak repay the pension he received in 2009 and 2010 — nearly $38,000.

The letter did hold a little hope. It said Klatchak could get his pension restarted if he submitted the necessary financial records. The deadline? Dec. 31.

That would have been a reasonable request, if the letter hadn't arrived that day.

If the VA had mailed the notice promptly, the Kempfs might have had time. The letter was dated Dec. 16. But because it wasn't postmarked until Dec. 29, the Kempfs didn't get it until the day the clock ran out.

Perhaps the paperwork the Kempfs sent was lost in the mail. But that never happened when they sent information to the VA before. Based on the VA's track record, which included auditors finding claims documents discarded in shred bins a few years ago, I'd say it's more likely the paperwork got lost in the government bureaucracy.

Still, let's assume it was lost in the mail. There is no acceptable excuse for what happened next.

Knowing they couldn't get the info to the VA by the deadline, the Kempfs nonetheless hustled and mailed the information Dec. 31, sending it by certified mail this time. The VA received it and opened a claim.

The case went nowhere for months. With his benefits stopped, Klatchak had only a monthly railroad pension to pay his bills. By June, his savings were exhausted and there wasn't enough to cover the costs of his care at Sacred Heart Senior Living.

Thankfully, Kempf said, the home worked with the family.

"They've been very understanding," he said. "They treat him very, very well."

The feds seemed to be in no rush to solve the problem, but were in a hurry to collect what they said Klatchak owed. With penalties, the amount had grown to $48,399. The Department of the Treasury threatened to garnish Klatchak's railroad pension.

The Kempfs feared what would happen if his income was cut even more. Would he get kicked out of the assisted living facility?

"Their history is they're pretty screwed up," Kempf said of the VA. "I know they've got an incredible volume of people they're dealing with. I can completely understand that … but so does the IRS and so does every other government agency."

The family asked for my help last month. About the same time, Dent's office told them it had made some progress. The Kempfs don't believe they would have gotten anywhere without assistance from Matthew McConnell, a constituent services representative for Dent, the Lehigh Valley's congressman.

"He worked hard for us," Kempf said.

Dent's office sent them a July 20 letter from the VA saying it had reinstated Klatchak's pension, retroactive to 2009. But the letter said Klatchak still owed money, which made no sense if the pension had been reinstated.

The VA should have erased the debt at the same time it confirmed his pension eligibility and reinstated his benefits retroactively. The two go hand-in-hand, and would have put this to rest all at once.

The VA seemed to be working toward clearing that up a week later, when it said it paid Klatchak all of his 2011 pension payments and "liquidated" the debt July 27.

It would have been nice if the Treasury Department was told that.

On Aug. 1, the Treasury followed through on its threat and garnished some of Klatchak's railroad pension, for a debt that no longer existed. On Aug. 2, the Treasury's collection agency sent the Kempfs a letter.

I contacted the VA and Dent's office about the situation. Both said they would look into it. Dent spokesman Collin Long told me Aug. 2. he believed the issue would be resolved "fairly soon."

In a statement, the VA told me it learned from Dent's office that day that the Kempfs had contacted the Watchdog. Apparently my own call to the VA the day before didn't get the point across.

The VA said it immediately asked its Philadelphia regional office to contact the VA's debt management center "to have the railroad retirement benefits garnishment stopped and all retroactive funds due the veteran issued."

On Aug. 5, the VA said in its statement, the debt management center confirmed the debt had been paid and the VA would "process the refund to the veteran as soon as possible."

I hope it doesn't take another seven months.

The Watchdog is published Thursdays and Sundays. Contact me by email at watchdog@mcall.com, by phone at 610-841-2364 (ADOG), by fax at 610-820-6693, or by mail at The Morning Call, 101 N. Sixth St., Allentown, PA, 18101. Follow me on Twitter at mcwatchdog and on Facebook at Morning Call Watchdog.